Changing Levels of Empathy: The Impact of Social Work Education

The development of online program options in higher education has prompted the discussion of how well the modality fits the nature of social work education and the Council on Social Work Accreditation (CSWE) educational standards. To examine the relationship between online education and social work education, this research study focused on empathy. Conceptualized as the ability to share and understand the feelings of others, empathy is at the core of social work education and practice. The primary purpose of this research study was to examine whether the cultivation of interpersonal empathy and social empathy changes by in-person and online education. An ongoing debate centers on the effectiveness of online instructional delivery in the virtual environment, as compared to in-person instruction in a physical classroom. Therefore, it is valuable to examine if the level of empathy scores for students changes from the beginning to the end of a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree program at Arizona State University, according to the mode of instruction, online versus in-person. Among the sample of 185 participants in the pre-test survey and 86 participants in the post-test survey, empathy levels were examined by time (pre-test to post-test) and by mode of instructional delivery (online versus in-person). To better understand the constructs and the relationship among the variables, critical theory was applied. In addition, the pedagogical theories of andragogy, transformative learning, and the Community of Inquiry model were informative. Findings revealed that the empathy survey instrument had high reliability, the levels of empathy increased for MSW students over time, and students’ empathy levels did not differ by in-person versus online modes of instruction, with the exception of the social empathy component of contextual understanding. The study findings have implications for social work education and future research. These implications highlight the need to explore how to best cultivate empathy in social work education, while continuing to examine the association of the mode of delivery with educational outcomes important to the profession of social work.